Rhode Island Escapes With Narrow Victory Over Suffolk
Price's three points not enough for Suffolk
ECRHA November 22nd, 2009 at 5:19PM
Bethpage, NY - Brendan Nelson scored the game winning goal as Rhode Island held on for a 5-4 win over Suffolk in Sunday morning action.
Rhode Island got the scoring started
in the first when a long rebound off the pad of Ricky Hunt bounced to
Nelson and he skated down the length of the rink and fired a shot over
the shoulder of Suffolk goalie Max Parisi to make it a 1-0 Rhode Island
lead. Ten seconds later it was Rhode Island again as Aaron Pratesi
put home a pass from Nelson to give the Rams a quick 2-0 lead.
Suffolk answered when Daniel West slammed home a feed from Bryan Price
on the powerplay to cut the lead in half with 47 seconds left in the
period. As time was winding down in the first, Justin Lundh took
a slapshot from outside the circles and found its way under the crossbar
as Parisi appeared to be screened, and Rhode Island took a 3-1 lead
into the second period.
Suffolk started off the scoring in the second as Eric Urso scored on a nice pass from Joseph Augustyn to cut the Rhode Island lead back to one. But once again it was the late period scoring that would haunt Suffolk. With 32 seconds left, Brett Borbidge scored on a nice feed from Eric Rieger to extend the lead back to two. The powerplay tally would finish the scoring for the period.
In the beginning of the final period,
the Rams controlled the play in the Suffolk zone, and it seemed that
it was a matter of time before they scored. Up a man, it was Nelson
again firing a shot from the circles past Parisi to give the Rams what
seemed to be a safe three goal lead with 4:50 left in the game.
However, two goals from Brian Price in 21 seconds cut the Rhode Island
lead back down to 1 with 3:25 remaining in the game. With momentum
on their side, Suffolk peppered Rhode Island goalie Ricky Hunt in the
final three minutes. Goalie Max Parisi made two big saves in the
last minute to keep it a one goal game, before being pulled for an extra
attacker. Suffolk had a golden chance to tie the game with 5 seconds
left, but Hunt came up big for the Rams, making a beautiful save to
preserve the win for Rhode Island.